1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cabinet for use beside a bed, in which the cabinet comprises a body and a drawer in said body having a closed position defined by engagement with the body.
2. Description of the Related Art
In hospitals, care homes, hospices and like institutions it is normal to provide a cabinet beside each bed whereby patients may have their personal belongings and items of food and drink readily to hand. In such institutions the bedside cabinet needs to meet two linked criteria, namely affordability and cleanliness.
With regard to affordability, the first factor to be considered is cost of manufacture. A very large organisation such as a public health service procures furniture in very large quantities, which drives down the unit cost. However, the very size of the organisation creates a great variety of locations for such furniture: even in a single hospital, wards may be differently arranged, especially if they have different functions. For the bedside cabinet the most basic variation is between placing the cabinet to the left or the right of the patient's bed. In the past this had led to cabinets which are essentially symmetrical about a centre line and can therefore be placed on either side of the bed. But such a cabinet has two notable disadvantages. First, it faces the front, whereas for much of the time the patient is to the side. Second, it has a back, which gives rise to cleaning problems (particular inside the cabinet, when the back is closed, as it conventionally is.
A great upsurge in hospital acquired infection over recent years has focussed renewed attention on the need for cleanliness in hospitals. A rigorously enforced hygiene code is the only effective counter to Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile (C. difficile) which are both now established in many hospitals, and also to outbreaks of norovirus; and a major component in this is ensuring cleanliness in and beside the bed, particularly in wards with rapid patient turnover and high bed occupancy. The need for cleanliness has financial implications in that the hygiene code must itself be affordable, and because patients who do become infected inevitably stay longer in hospital, creating an extra financial burden.